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Why do we use consecrated oil for blessings of healing? Why does a second individual need to “seal” the anointing?
What is the biblical precedent?
Does this sort of thing happen in any other churches?
Any ideas?
Roy wrote:Why do we use consecrated oil for blessings of healing?
Consecrated grease is too hard to wash out of the hair later.
James 5:14-15 is probably the closest thing in the Bible to the current practice.
I don’t have any scriptures for it, but I have heard a few people say some things about it. I think it might have been in an Ensign article actually. Olive oil is symbolic of the Atonement. (Connection to Gethsemane, an olive vineyard with a name that literally translates to oil press.) It’s traditionally done with extra virgin olive oil, symbolizing further purity. I don’t know why the second individual seals the anointing, but it’s not something that’s required in case of emergency. Maybe it’s in reference to the separateness of the Godhead?
I wouldn’t be surprised if other churches used olive oil for a similar purpose, especially looking at history. Then again, olive oil has historically been used for a lot of different things, from lighting lamps to… uhhh… lubricant.
Theory time: Mark 6:13: And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them. James 514-15: Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. The LDS church was a restorationist movement. I get the feeling that restorationists are predisposed to comb through scripture looking for incorrect or lost practices and teachings so they can restore them. If there’s an obscure passage in the bible about anointing with oil or a passage about celestial bodies like the sun, the moon, and stars, a restorationist is going to do what restorationists do; restore the practice or come up with an explanation.
That’s the impression I get from the early days of the church. There were already many questions without answers centered around obscure biblical passages, what people lacked was someone that spoke for god to give definitive answers.
Why the second person? The scripture in James pluralizes elder. Elders. Let
thempray. Plus the other scripture, wherever two or three are gathered in my name. Dividing the ordinance into two stages may have been simply to give the other person something to do other than stand there. Yes it does happen to some extent in some churches though less commonly. In the Orthodox church it is called Chrismation. The Greek Orthodox Church has a number of similarities to the LDS Church that are fascinating. Healing blessings is one of those similarities. nibbler’ expnantion is spot-on, imo.
My guess, is the oil’s a physical catalyst for a spiritual blessing. Most rituals make strong use of physical catalysts, to help concentrate our mind and increase our faith towards the desired outcome. Just like with the bread and water of the sacrament, or being submerged in baptism. Or with the anointing of “holy water” in Catholicism. There’s really nothing special about the bread or water, but used in spiritual rite, it compounds our faith, and reinforces our ability to feel the affects and spirit of the ordinance. The two priesthood holders also help to reinforce faith. If two people confirm you’re going to get better, you’re faith will increase over having just one.
dande48 wrote:
Most rituals make strong use of physical catalysts, to help concentrate our mind and increase our faith towards the desired outcome. Just like with the bread and water of the sacrament, or being submerged in baptism. Or with the anointing of “holy water” in Catholicism. There’s really nothing special about the bread or water, but used in spiritual rite, it compounds our faith, and reinforces our ability to feel the affects and spirit of the ordinance.
I agree with this explanation.
It then takes some level of faith to support the idea that doing it any other way is not valid. When…I’m not sure God cares, except for the exercise of faith in something (could be anything..but something).
I think a mash-up of both nibbler’s and dande’s explanations is a good one. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were any ancient thoughts on the healing properties of olive oil either.
My guess on the sealing of the blessing is that it might have something to do with the scripture that said that Peter had the power to seal in heaven whatever he sealed on earth. So a blessing that is sealed by someone with the priesthood on earth is symbolic of affirmation/ratification of the blessing in heaven by God. The kicker is that we all know it’s roulette whether the blessings actually come to pass. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t and its often hard to make the right attribution for why they come to pass if they do.
I like what Brian Johnson said — they comfort people, in whatever form — as a comfort or healing blessing. And this is in ways that simple words, unattended by priesthood ceremony often don’t. In that sense they have intrinsic value even though there may be no real divine innerworkings under the hood.
SilentDawning wrote:
The kicker is that we all know it’s roulette whether the blessings actually come to pass. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t and its often hard to make the right attribution for why they come to pass if they do.
When I was in the middle of trying to have a miscarriage (we didn’t know at the time – we knew something was up, but we didn’t know what), I was promised that the the baby would be healthy in a priesthood blessing. Come to find out a few days later that technically there wasn’t a baby – just the sac and a bunch of cells. Biologically it was if everything was set up for a baby, but the ignition to transition the process from baby environment growing to growing baby didn’t start.
That was really hard to make sense of at the time. I think that my grief about the situation swept the grief about the false answer away though. Eventually I was able to shrug and go “maybe it was that we all wanted the baby to be healthy” or “maybe it was applied to when I was actually growing a baby” (hindsight being 20/20 my rainbow baby was healthy – in fact she has a tendency to be a catalyst and go through experiences that leave her unscathed but cause damage around her). I learned that it wasn’t so much about the words being said as it was the feeling and hope that the blessing invoked.
We recently had a not small amount financial windfall and a forgiveness of of some debt we owed after 3-4 months of not paying Tithing (Hubby forgot, and it was not a priority for me). Hubby tried to attribute it to diligence in paying tithing while I made no such claim. I appreciate the windfall that was a side benefit of working for my previous company. The forgiveness of debt was from a family member who was an educator who was excited that I was going back to school. He believes in education and also putting his money behind his beliefs. He is also an atheist.
SilentDawning wrote:
I like what Brian Johnson said — they comfort people, in whatever form — as a comfort or healing blessing. And this is in ways that simple words, unattended by priesthood ceremony often don’t. In that sense they have intrinsic value even though there may be no real divine innerworkings under the hood.
[SOAPBOX] Which is another reason why I think it is dumb not to adapt our church culture to allow/encourage women to bless other women in a ritual procedure. [END OF SOAP BOX]
I will start by saying that in my half-century on this earth, I have not participated or seen any type of priesthood healing. This topic reminds me of an interesting podcast I listened to quite a while ago. Chelsea Shields is an anthropologist (BYU then Boston College) went to study spiritual rights in Africa from the “medicine men”. She talked about how seeing one of the medicine men “do his thing” on a child that broke their arm. She knew he was not giving the child any “first aid” or anything called medicine. But the act helped calm down the child. So in some ways it was helpful. I find this the same with priesthood blessings. It helps those that want it to help and believe it will help. I can respect that.
LookingHard wrote:
I will start by saying that in my half-century on this earth, I have not participated or seen any type of priesthood healing.This topic reminds me of an interesting podcast I listened to quite a while ago. Chelsea Shields is an anthropologist (BYU then Boston College) went to study spiritual rights in Africa from the “medicine men”. She talked about how seeing one of the medicine men “do his thing” on a child that broke their arm. She knew he was not giving the child any “first aid” or anything called medicine. But the act helped calm down the child. So in some ways it was helpful. I find this the same with priesthood blessings.
It helps those that want it to help and believe it will help. I can respect that.
the strange part is that I have. I’ve felt the Spirit come over me and then people got well. Not always, but a couple times…yet my unorthodoxy, lack of belief, lack of commitment remains. It’s as if the negative evidence cancels the positive evidence — or at least, casts doubt on it.
SilentDawning wrote:
the strange part is that I have. I’ve felt the Spirit come over me and then people got well. Not always, but a couple times…yet my unorthodoxy, lack of belief, lack of commitment remains. It’s as if the negative evidence cancels the positive evidence — or at least, casts doubt on it.
I can relate. I think that sometimes a person gets used to putting things they can’t currently make sense of – and put the positive things on the shelf too. I think this is a good thing overall.
I am beginning to think that gaining wisdom, perspective, and individual understanding is a lot like putting on lights on a Christmas tree. You walk the same paths over and over again with different cords and a slightly different perspective. Periodically things burn out and/or need to be tested prior to and during the grand circuits.
I can think of three specific times in my life when I participated in healing blessings that were “special” in some way and undeniably included helping of some kind. I also can think of a fairly significant number involving my children that weren’t obviously miraculous but that included elements I would consider to be in the broad category of healing. The first three still are logically unexplainable to me. I truly see them as having a miraculous foundation. The others might or might not have been miraculous in any way. I don’t know, and my analytical, logical mind argues they probably weren’t – but I do know my children felt peace and were comforted by them in a deep and real way – and I do believe that sort of peace and comfort often leads to faster recovery.
In other words, I have a very few personal experiences with miraculous elements of healing blessings, but I have numerous experiences that teach me healing blessings can be a wonderful thing (while also understanding how painful and even damaging they can be when they are unfulfilled and obviously wrong). My own approach is to speak words of comfort always but to clear my mind and be open to saying things I don’t expect to say. I think the issue is when someone goes into a blessing assuming the other person will be healed simply if the blesser and/or blessee has enough “faith” (which usually is defined incorrectly as “believes enough”).
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